Mobile phone - help needed!

[westerdam2]

Can anyone help an non-techie before he goes bankrupt?

Decided to update my old mobile (on Virgin PAYG) with a HTC Dream bought from someone on here. New phone is all nice and shiny with unused accessories BUT

I've spoken to around a dozen people at Virgin Customer Services and each has a different theory about my problem. I wonder if anyone here can assist?

The first evening I installed the old Virgin SIM card into the new phone, the remaining credit of £23 disappeared overnight! Two subsequent top ups vanished within minutes of being credited.

I've also had 2 'free' credits of £5 given to me by Virgin but they too disappeared within minutes. I've not downloaded anything or accessed the internet although the last Customer Service guy said I was clocking up internet costs of 48pence per minute when the phone was switched on. The previous Rep said he could only trace 48p worth of calls and the remainder of the £5 could not be traced on his system.

One other CS rep said 2 weeks ago that she suspected a firm called Flytxt were accessing the phone and that I should sent a STOPALL message to a 5 digit number. Sadly my txt message is always bounced back followed 10 seconds later by a message (which doesn't go into my Inbox) saying that I should top up as there is no credit on the account! There's no indication that this message is originated by Virgin.

I'm totally baffled and the best Virgin can offer now is to cut off my internet access which rather defeats the purpose of having it there in the first place as Virgin access to the web is only 30p per day (not 48p per minute!).

Today I bought a brand new Virgin PAYG Sim card and put it in the HTC Dream (noting this would be a new mobile phone number). Topped up with £5 and guess what? It's disappeared within a couple of minutes of being credited! I just can't see where it's all going!!

Any advice greatly received.

Edited 9 October, 2010 by westerdam2

[gadgetman]

what apps are installed?

Could be the browser as well.

[westerdam2]

what apps are installed?

Could be the browser as well.

Thanks for you interest.

The only things I see on the menu are Google Mail, Google Talk, IM, Maps, Market, YouTube. The browser address is google.com

This is a copy of this afternoon's bill. It appears to be clocking up 48 pence charges every 3 seconds!!!!

Edited 9 October, 2010 by westerdam2

[Robshaw]

Thanks for you interest.

The only things I see on the menu are Google Mail, Google Talk, IM, Maps, Market, YouTube. The browser address is google.com

This is a copy of this afternoon's bill. It appears to be clocking up 48 pence charges every 3 seconds!!!!

You had a look at internet settings? Phone settings? - I presume it's automatically connecting to the internet when possible. If you can't turn it off, head to a carphone warehouse and they will do it for free.

[gadgetman]

Could always ask at http://androidforums.com/t-mobile-g1/

I'm sure they'll know the answer.

[westerdam2]

Could always ask at http://androidforums.com/t-mobile-g1/

I'm sure they'll know the answer.

Thanks for the info - I'll be visiting at frequent intervals!

Poss development: phone indicated about an hour ago that an update had been downloaded (I didn't know anything about it) and was ready to instal. It's 65mb!

Risked topping up with another £5 and hey, it's still there and hasn't disappeared like the other £65! Hope it's still there tomorrow.

[mbames]

Poss development: phone indicated about an hour ago that an update had been downloaded (I didn't know anything about it) and was ready to instal. It's 65mb!

I wonder if it had been downloading a firmware update or somesuch? Still I would have expected it come in as one large chunk, and not little bursts every 3 seconds...

[mannyo]

Smartphones like data, mine is always connected to the internet. Thats why I have a contract which includes data usage, as data usage on PAYG is very expensive as you are finding out. Its a shame that the online virgin bill does not show the volume of data downloaded.

There should be a setting to disable data use, or switch to WIFI only in the menus somewhere. If you do this you will lose some functionality, as some of those apps use data exclusively. For example, google maps will not work at all since all the data is pulled live off the internet.

[swedishskoda]

Must be something fishy... even if you're constantly online, I doubt if the legit applications should create that much traffic.

There's a few things you could do:

1) Always keep mobile network turned off when you don't need to access the internet. There's a htc widget that allows you to easily toggle on/off mode.

2) when you turn on your htc, a lot of apps start automatically. You can't do anything to prevent this (a htc phone is just as bad as a win pc). But if you use an app such as 'advanced task killer' you can immediately disable a number of useless apps. If you do not use gmail and all the sync options related to this, make sure to disable anything related to google. Google presupposes that you constantly want to check gmail, chat at google talk, check your location with google maps, and so on. Another possible culprit is a podcast app.

3) Browse though the list of programs. Uninstall everything unnecessary. There's a lot of unnecessary stuff both from htc and android that can't be uninstalled, so do what you can to stop these programs as mentioned above (2).

My PAYG provider offers 1 year data traffic for £45, limited to 0.5 GB/month. I've so far never used more than 0.15 GB/month. Don't know if anything similar is found in the UK.

Edited 10 October, 2010 by swedishskoda

[gadgetman]

htc desire owners will confirm regular small packets of data seem normal.

[swedishskoda]

Seems as if Virgin offers something called "mobile internet add-on" giving you unlimited data traffic up to 1 GB/month for £5/month. Maybe worth considering. If you also turn off mobile network when not needed, your problems will be solved and you can make use of your smartphone without having to face ridiculous bills.

[mannyo]

Must be something fishy... even if you're constantly online, I doubt if the legit applications should create that much traffic.

offers 1 year data traffic for £45, limited to 0.5 GB/month. I've so far never used more than 0.15 GB/month. Don't know if anything similar is found in the UK.

The UK charge for data on PAYG on most networks is £5 per MB or more, so its quiet easy to use up £10 of credit using google maps for example.

[swedishskoda]

The UK charge for data on PAYG on most networks is £5 per MB or more, so its quiet easy to use up £10 of credit using google maps for example.

With my provider it's £1,50/MB and that's why I opted for an data traffic add-on, paying £45 p.a. for 0.5 GB/month, and (see my post #11) Virgin seems to offer something similar.

[softscoop]

It might be wise to disable background data?

On mine (android 2.2) go into Settings, Accounts & Sync, and there you can disable it.

When you have apps open, then can still access data, it's just things running in the background now can't, saving battery and possibly credit too.

[westerdam2]

Thanks all for the many tips and suggestions - much appreciated.

Appropriate action now being taken!